


It Can't Be You

by childofsummer



Series: The Ways I'll Love You Endlessly [8]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-09 23:45:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16459358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/childofsummer/pseuds/childofsummer
Summary: Alex can’t believe it. There is no way that Lena is her soulmate. Kara is too upset to have noticed Lena saying her words and she won’t know for sure until they get home and she can take her boot off to check, although the burning coming from her tattoo seems pretty clear.





	It Can't Be You

**Author's Note:**

> I'm such a sucker for a soulmate AU.
> 
> In this one people have a phrase tattooed on their body that their soulmate will say one day in their presence. It doesn't have to be said directly to them and it isn't always the first thing they hear their soulmate say. Once the phrase has been said the tattoo stings and darkens to black, alerting the person to the connection.
> 
> Canon compliant up to 3x17

They are on a mission to save Sam. Waking up in the Dark Valley was admittedly terrifying but Alex has always been resourceful and she is not about to stand around in this creepy place without something sharp in her hands. She immediately sets to work finding them weapons as Kara does her best to puzzle out where they need to go.

“This is impressive.” Lena says as she stares around in wonder.

“This is Juru.” Kara states.

“Are those for Sam and Julia?” Lena asks as Alex re-joins the group with a handful of long sticks.

“It’s for whatever might be around.” Alex retorts. This place is making her skin crawl and she definitely feels better holding something that can dole out some damage.

“We don’t even know if anything here can get injured.” Lena states unhelpfully.               

Alex is still kind of frustrated that Lena kept her research on Sam a secret, so she doesn’t even feel remotely guilty about jabbing a stick into her stomach. They needed to test a hypothesis and Lena has been unhelpful so far, so Alex thinks of it like she’s getting her involved.

“Ow!” Lena frowns at her and rubs at the sore spot she just created.

“Yeah, we’re good. This one…” Alex holds up the stick she just used on Lena. “I like this one, its mine.”

“Thanks.” Kara grabs one of the sticks that Alex holds out for her before slicing it into her palm. “This place bites.” She holds up her hand to show them the blood that it has drawn as Alex passes Lena the other stick.

Alex does her best to hide the spike of anxiety that it causes her. She has a hard enough time keeping her little sister safe when she is an indestructible flying alien, but this place puts them on a level playing field and it scares the hell out of her. She stares ahead and notices something in the fog close by. “Oh my God.”

“What?” Kara turns to see what she is looking at.

“That’s Grace.” Alex says as she recognises the body of the woman lying on the ground.

“Who?” Lena asks as she moves forward to join the sisters.

“She’s the human form of one of the world killers.” Kara says sadly.

“She’s dead.” Lena stutters as the reality of their situation starts to set in on her.

“Which means that we are running out of time with Sam and Julia.” Alex states as she wonders if her friend is okay.

“Yeah, they headed in this direction.” Kara points behind them with her stick before leading them further into the forest.

Alex does her best to ignore all of the unexplainable noises she can hear in the distance. She is worried about Kara walking ahead of her and Lena walking behind her. She just hopes that she can protect them both if something decides to attack. They walk for a long time and Alex gets more and more worried about Kara the further they go.

“You don’t look so good.” She says when the worry finally bubbles over.

“I’m just tired. Brainy said it would be hard for me to carry both of you in here.” Kara waves off Alex’s concern even though she is breathing heavily. “Is this what it’s like when humans exercise? This is terrible, why would you ever exercise?”

“One foot in front of the other.” Alex does her best to sound supportive but she is secretly finding it amusing to be on level ground with Kara for once.

“Its fine, it’s no worse than light kryptonite poisoning.” Kara says pointedly causing Lena to scoff.

“Come on, there is too much at stake for you to still be mad at me.” Lena says defensively.

“I said we would work together, I never said it would be sunshine and rainbows.” Kara snarks as Alex stands silently behind her sister.

“Great, because we’re a little lacking on sunshine right now.” Lena sarcastically indicates towards the gloomy sky. “What I did wasn’t personal.”

“You had a stash that kills Kryptonians Lena, its personal.” Alex speaks up to defend her sister.

“I would never use it for that, you know that.” Lena argues.

“I thought I knew everything I needed to know, but you have secrets and it changes things.” Kara says sadly.

“Oh, right, you don’t like secrets.” Lena stands her ground against the blonde.

“Nope, I don’t.” Kara states.

“Good. What’s your real name?” Lena demands and Alex flinches. That is actually a fair question.

Kara hesitates and looks to Alex for help. “That’s not a great question for a Luthor to ask someone in my family.”

“You have secrets, I can get on board with that. I have secrets too.” Lena presents a reasonable argument in the face of Kara’s temper. Alex’s eyes go wide at the last sentence that Lena says and she hisses in pain as the bottom of her foot starts to burn.

Alex can’t believe it. There is no way that Lena is her soulmate. Kara is too upset to have noticed Lena saying her words and she won’t know for sure until they get home and she can take her boot off to check, although the burning coming from her tattoo seems pretty clear.

A screeching noise in the distance draws all of their attention and Alex doesn’t have any more time to wonder about her potential soulmate. She steps forward protectively in front of Kara and Lena and watches in horror as some ghostly monster appears in front of their eyes.

“What the hell was that?” Lena gasps fearfully.

“The reason we have sticks.” Alex can’t help but feel a little bit justified at the thought of her efforts to get them weapons earlier on. The monster attacks and Alex launches her stick like it’s a spear. Unfortunately it doesn’t inflict the damage she would have liked, but it does make it disappear.

“That’s a Kryptonian demon, I’ve seen them before. That’s where they went; we’re running out of time.” Kara announces as she indicates the path that the demon flew down.

Alex studies the cave at the end of the path and notices an opening in the rock wall. “I think I see an entrance over there.”

 

* * *

 

 

Alex doesn’t get a chance to think about her soulmate tattoo again until she is dragging herself into her apartment late that night and she is kind of scared to look. She gets in the shower and spends the entire time wondering if she should look or not. Even if it is Lena, nothing could come of it at this point in time anyway. Lena has just started a relationship with James and Alex wants her to have a choice and not be forced into anything because of destiny.  Alex calls Kara once she is dressed in her pyjamas and her sister flies in the window five minutes later with four pints of ice-cream.

“So I have to tell you something and I need you to not freak out.” Alex announces around a mouthful of cookie dough ice-cream.

“What is it?” Kara shuffles closer to Alex and gives her sister her full attention.

“I think Lena is my soulmate.” Alex says quietly.

Kara’s face cycles rapidly through a variety of emotions before settling on cautious excitement. She might be upset with Lena at the moment but she would never deny her sister an ounce of potential happiness. “Are you not sure?”

“She said my words when you were fighting with her in the Dark Valley.” Alex tells her as she closes her ice-cream container.

“Did it hurt?” Kara asks curiously.

“Yeah but the monster showed up so I couldn’t really think about it and I’ve been too scared to look.” Alex admits sheepishly.

“You didn’t check to see if it changed colour?” Kara asks in surprise.

“I was kind of hoping you would do it for me.” Alex says nervously.

“Of course!” Kara shouts. “Give it here.” She says as she grabs Alex’s foot and yanks it into her lap. Kara squeals excitedly when she sees that the words on the bottom of Alex’s foot have changed from a pale grey to a solid black colour, indicating that her sister has heard her words.

“Lena’s my soulmate isn’t she?” Alex asks when Kara clutches her foot to her chest and squeezes it happily, almost throwing her off the couch.

“Yes! This is so exciting!” Kara shouts.

 

* * *

 

 

Alex swears Kara to secrecy about her tattoo and her sister reluctantly agrees. Months pass and they defeat Reign and the World Killers, returning their lives to some level of normalcy. Kara tells Lena about being Supergirl and after some time to process, their friendship is now stronger than ever. Kara starts hosting Game Night again and Lucy moves back to town, working as Alex’s co-director from the desert base.

Lena and James break up after he finds his soulmate and the CEO takes it better than Alex would have expected. Kara starts prodding her about her tattoo again but Alex insists on letting things happen on their own time. Lena has had so few chances in her life to make choices for herself and Alex wants her to choose her for herself and not because destiny said so.

They have grown closer in the few months since she broke up with James and Alex’s new favourite thing is finding different ways to make Lena smile. Kara thinks it’s adorable which makes Alex grumpy. They are sitting together on Kara’s couch playing Monopoly with Kara, Winn and Lucy and Alex can’t help but brush her thigh against Lena’s every other turn.

Kara and Winn have already been eliminated and Alex knows that beating Lena is a lost cause, but she is determined to take out Lucy first. Alex and Lucy are notoriously competitive with each other, much to everyone else’s amusement. They take great pride in the insults that they throw at each other and their cursing often makes Kara blush. Alex and Lucy are both on the verge of bankruptcy when the brunette rolls onto the go to jail square causing Alex to shout triumphantly, because Lucy was relying on the two hundred dollars for passing go.

“I hope you rot in prison, you poisonous bitch!” Alex shouts at Lucy causing the brunette to cackle hysterically.

“You wanna be my prison wife?” Lucy winks at Alex and Kara blushes.

Alex turns towards Lena to pass her the dice and she is shocked to find tears welling up in her eyes. “Hey Lena, what’s wrong?”

Alex’s question draws the attention of the whole group and they all go quiet in concern.

“I just thought…” Lena sniffles before jumping up off the couch and clutching at her side. “Holy fuck that burns!”

They all watch in surprise as Lena bursts into tears and sits down onto the floor. Alex jumps up off the couch to go and sit next to her and after a second of hesitation she wraps her arms around the other woman. Lena sobs inconsolably for a long time and it makes everyone incredibly nervous. Lucy gets up to get some drinks as Kara and Winn pack up the game in an attempt to give Lena some privacy. Once Lena finally stops crying Lucy comes over with a box of tissues and a glass of scotch for both her and Alex.

“So I know you just heard your words. Please tell me that you don’t have ‘You wanna be my prison wife’ tattooed on your body” Lucy says softly, with barely a trace of teasing in her voice.

“No.” Lena wipes her eyes and swallows a mouthful of scotch before pulling her sweatshirt up at the side to reveal her newly blackened words. ‘I hope you rot in prison you poisonous bitch’ is branded onto her ribcage and Lucy chokes on a mouthful of scotch at the sight as Alex turns bright red in embarrassment.

“Lena I am so sorry.” Alex frowns as she lifts her hand to trace the words, but she pulls her hand away before touching the pale skin.

“Are you sorry because of what the words say or because it’s me?” Lena asks sadly.

“The words I swear. It’s not a nice thing to have on your body. Are you upset that it’s me?” Alex runs her fingers through her hair nervously as Lucy makes a quiet retreat to join Kara and Winn in the kitchen.

“Not at all, I actually really like you Alex.” Lena smiles softly as Alex hesitantly laces their fingers together.

“Then why did you cry like that?” Alex asks gently.

“I always thought that my soulmate would hate me because of my family. I thought the words would be said to me and I was caught very off guard to hear them in this context. I think I got a bit overwhelmed.” Lena admits nervously.

“I could never hate you Lena.” Alex rubs her thumb reassuringly across Lena’s knuckles.

“You don’t seem very shocked by all of this.” Lena observes causing Alex to grin sheepishly.

“Okay, please don’t be mad.” Alex says as she drops Lena’s hand and starts tugging at her laces to pull her boot off.

“Why? What are you doing?” Lena frowns as Alex tosses her boot to the floor and peels her sock off.

“I already knew that you are my soulmate.” Alex turns her ankle so that Lena can see the words printed on the arch of her foot.

Lena gasps at the sight. “How long have you known?”

“Since we were in the Dark Valley.” Alex admits.

“That was over a year ago. Why didn’t you ever say anything?” Lena asks vulnerably.

“I didn’t want you to feel obligated to be with me because of fate or whatever. I wanted you to have a choice. You always deserve a choice.” Alex runs her fingers over the words on the bottom of her foot as she avoids Lena’s piercing gaze.

“And what if I choose you?” Lena gently places a hand on Alex’s jaw and turns her head so that they are looking at each other.

“Then you can have me.” Alex smiles softly at the look of wonder on Lena’s face.

“What did I do to deserve someone as kind as you?” Lena asks as she studies the details of Alex’s face, committing everything about this moment to memory.

“I feel the same way about you.” Alex grins dopily as Lena shifts closer.

“Kiss her!” Lucy shouts from the kitchen causing them both to start giggling.

“She might be right.” Lena whispers conspiratorially.

Alex leans forward and presses her lips gently against Lena’s. The brunette deepens the kiss and Alex is only vaguely aware of the cheering and whistles coming from the kitchen. She knows that they won’t always have the smoothest road but she will do whatever it takes to make it work with the woman in her arms.


End file.
